Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:

CBS News recently reported that President Biden is considering bringing into the United States an undisclosed number of pro-Hamas, pro-10/7 Gaza Muslim refugees, who will be entitled to permanent U.S. residency, resettlement benefits including housing assistance, and a path to American citizenship. This is a terribly dangerous idea. Antisemitic violence has already reached perilous levels in the U.S. Mobs identifying themselves as “we are all Hamas” are assaulting Jewish students, and threatening Jews that there will be “10,000 October 7ths” and that “7th of October is going to be every day for you.” (See also ZOA’s detailed letter to AG Garland, Asst. AG Clarke and FBI Director Wray, May 8, 2024.) Bringing more pro-Hamas Gazans into the United States will result in even more violent attacks on Jews and others on American campuses and streets.

The U.S. is unable to vet prospective Gazan refugees for terror activities, terror ties and Islamist terrorist ideology. There is no U.S. “on the ground” presence in Gaza; U.S. officials are prohibited from traveling to Gaza. As former FBI Director James Comey famously testified before Congress on October 21, 2015, in areas where the U.S. has no on-the-ground presence to enable the U.S. to collect information about a local population, “we can query our database [about prospective refugees] until the cows come home, but there will be nothing showing up because we have no record of them.” (C-Span video, minute 45)

Similarly, as thirty-four U.S. Senators wrote in a letter to President Biden dated May 1, 2024, opposing Biden’s plan to admit Gazan refugees: “[W]e are not confident that your administration can adequately vet this high-risk population for terrorist ties and sympathies before admitting them into the United States. . . . U.S. and allied officials have very little access to Gazans living in the area, making it nearly impossible to conduct thorough vetting before admitting them into our country. . . We are confused as to why the United States is willing to accept Gazan refugees when even nearby Arab countries supportive of the Palestinian cause refuse to take them in due to security concerns.”

The inability to vet Gazans is especially dangerous, given the strong likelihood that Gazans have terror ties and/or sympathies. Gazans overwhelmingly elected the terrorist group Hamas. Gazans are taught in UNRWA schools and mosques, and by their Hamas government, to hate Jews, Christians and America. Thousands of Gazan civilians, including UNRWA teachers, participated in Hamas’ October 7 massacre, torture and kidnapping of Israeli citizens. The Gazan civilians were just as cruel and sadistic as Hamas. Gazan civilians abused their Israeli work permits to collect detailed intelligence on Israeli communities, and to draw maps of Jewish nurseries and homes to help Hamas slaughter Jewish babies and kidnap Israeli civilians. Israeli forces have found weapons stored for Hamas and terror tunnel entrances in numerous Gazan homes (as well as in hospitals, schools and UNRWA facilities).

The most recent (March 2024) Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) poll found that 71% of Gazans still support Hamas’ October 7 “offensive” (atrocities) against Israelis, and only 5% think that Hamas committed war crimes. (See also “Palestinian Arabs Overwhelmingly Support Hamas & Their Genocidal Aspirations – ZOA’s Mort Klein Op-Ed in The Federalist,” Oct. 25, 2023.)

It is also unconscionable that the Biden administration is trying to figure out how to bring Gazans into the United States while innocent Jews and Americans are still being held hostage in dire conditions in Gaza. As the letter to Biden from thirty-four Senators urged, Biden should “redirect [his] efforts to saving the Americans who are still held hostage in Gaza. Our first obligation should be to rescue our own citizens, not Gazans.”

There are still other problems with Biden’s potential plan. One potential proposal is to bring Gazans to the United States who have already escaped to Egypt. However, if they are already located in Egypt, a safe country, they no longer legally qualify as refugees entitled to refugee status in the United States. Another issue is that refugees need to demonstrate that they are fleeing persecution. Does the Biden administration plan to allow false claims that Gazans are being persecuted by our democratic ally, Israel? Will Hamas-sympathizing Gazans dare to claim that they are being persecuted by Hamas?

Gazans largely came from Egypt, the Maghreb (North African countries including Algeria) and other Arab countries in the 1800s and first half of the 1900s. Common Gazan last names include variations of “Al Masri” (from Egypt) and “Mughrabi” (from the Maghreb). These would be the logical destinations for Gazans who wish to leave Gaza. Similarly, the New York Post Editorial Board wrote that “The logical places to host them [Gazans] for now are nearby countries: Egypt (especially those already there!), Jordan, maybe Saudi Arabia or Qatar.” (See “Biden’s Plan to Bring in Gazan Refugees is National Security Insanity,” by Post Editorial Board, May 1, 2024.)

Moreover, Biden is already blocking the deportation of an estimated 6,000 Palestinian Arabs who are currently illegally present in the U.S.  Biden’s “deferred enforced departure” order prevents these thousands of Palestinian Arab illegal aliens from being deported for at least the next 18 months – thereby increasing the threats of anti-Israel, anti-American violence on U.S. campuses and streets. (See Pres. Joseph R. Biden, Jr., “Memorandum on the Deferred Enforced Departure for Certain Palestinians,” Feb. 14, 2024, and US Citizenship and Immigration Service implementation memo, Fed’l Register, Apr. 15, 2024.)

America has already experienced too many horrendous Islamist terror attacks on our soil. Has Biden forgotten the deadly Islamist massacres of Americans at the Orlando Pulse Nightclub; the San Bernadino Christmas party; the Monsey Hanukah party; the Jersey City kosher grocery; the Waukesha, Wisconsin Christmas parade; the Chattanooga, Tennessee U.S. marine base; the Fort Hood U.S. army base; and the Boston Marathon? We don’t need more of this.